Looking to ditch that DVD drive that hasn't powered up in three years for something with a bit more bling? Thermaltake is hoping that you will look no further than their new Commander FT fan controller. Slotting into a 5.25-inch drive bay, the Commander FT is dominated by a large 5.5-inch touchscreen display and allows you to control up to five case fans.

The Commander FT is a five channel, 50W design (10W per channel) design powered by a single Molex connector. Fan support includes 3-pin or 4-pin (PWM) fans. The touch panel is laid out with large on screen buttons. The capacitive screen shows temperature and fan RPM speeds and allows users to engage automatic or manual control modes. Thermaltake includes two automatic presets called performance and silent which perform how one would expect – the performance mode ramps all connected fans to their highest speeds while the silent mode keeps fans spinning as slowly as possible while keeping the case temperature in check. When it comes to manual mode, users can choose individual fan channels and adjust their speeds using an on-screen slider.

Although it is not the most powerful fan controller (only 10W/channel) on the market, it sure looks sharp. If you are looking for a high end fan controller, the Commander FT will be available soon for $37 from online retailers (such as Newegg).

NZXT has launched its new Sentry Mix 2 fan controller. Featuring an audio equipment theme, the Sentry Mix 2 fits into a single 5.25” bay. It features a matte black bezel with six glossy black sliders that are recessed into the bezel to ensure compatibility with PC case doors. Below the fan speed sliders are LEDs that can be changed to one of five colors (white, blue, green, orange, red).

The Mix 2 is the successor and replacement of the original Mix fan controller, and it uses a redesigned PCB. The controller has six sliders that are connected to six 4-pin fan outputs. The fan controller is powered by two 4-pin Molex power connectors and can draw a maximum of 180W. Each fan channel can draw a maximum of 30W. The sliders are analog rheostats that are also compatible with PWM controlled fans.

The Sentry Mix 2 comes with a 2 year warranty. The fan controller should be available soon with an MSRP of $29.99. More information can be found on NZXT’s website. As far as fan controllers go, I could see myself using this one as it keeps the LED bling to a minimum.

NZXT has announced that it is making its Grid fan hub available to the masses. No longer only available with certain NZXT cases, the Grid fan hub takes a single Molex power cable and provides 3-pin power outputs for up to ten fans.

The NZXT kit will come with the Grid hub, a 200mm long Molex power adapter, a single 200mm long (3-pin) female-to-female adapter cable, and two 200mm (3-pin) fan extension cables. NZXT is also including five black cable ties to assist with cable management.

Unfortunately, the Grid does not provide functionality to allow adjustable fan speeds. All fans connected to the Grid hub will run at 100% unless other means (such as resistors) are used inline to slow them down. If you only care for speed, and are in a situation where your motherboard does not support enough fan headers but you cannot justify a full fan controller the Grid might be for you. For the price, it is serviceable in that regard.

Speaking of pricing, the Grid fan hub will be available soon with a MSRP of $11.99. More information is available on NZXT's product page.

One of the best ways to bring down the noise your system generates without switching to alternate cooling methods is to install a fan controller in your system so that you can control the speed your fans run at and slow them when you don't need the extra cooling. Hardware Canucks finished a video review of two fan controllers from BitFenix, the basic five channel Hydra Pro and the Internet enabled, touch screen Recon which offers far more control than the analog Hydra Pro. Neither controller costs more than $50, check out the review and see which would fit your system best.

"Fan controllers may not be a marquee item within many enthusiasts’ systems but the power they grant over airflow within a case cannot be underestimated. BitFenix's Hydra Pro and Recon controllers hail from very different ends of the spectrum but they both grant end users complete control over their system fans."

Even with the fancy drivers now that allow you to set a minimum fan speed you will find that it is almost impossible to completely turn the fan off. If you desire to do so, it is almost impossible to turn the fan completely off, which is something that is almost impossible with either a software solution or with a PWM controller. Over at Hack a Day you can find instructions on how to create a breadboard project which translates PWM signal to DC and will allow you much greater control over your fan speed.

"[hedgehoginventions] wrote in to share a little modification he made to his video card in order to keep it from overheating during strenuous 3D tasks. Having swapped out the stock cooler on his Nvidia 9600GT graphics card, he found that it did not need to utilize the fan while doing mundane things like checking email, but that it still required extra air flow while playing games.

He figured he get the fan to shut off by tweaking the PWM signal, but he found that he could not get the duty cycle under 20% using software, which still caused the fan to run at all times. The circuit he built takes the PWM signal output by the card, cleaning it up before converting it to a corresponding DC voltage. The fan then runs at the same speed it would if driven directly by the PWM signal, though it can now turn off completely when not required."